Wat Thai (Temple)

The Wat Thai in North Hollywood is the first and largest Thai Theravada Buddhist temple in the United States. Built in the late 70's, the Wat Thai appeared out of place like it was plucked out of some serene mountain-top forest and dropped onto the flat and dull landscape at the edge of the San Fernando Valley, where autoshops and gas stations seem like unimpressed neighbors.

My introduction to the Wat Thai came at an early age. In the early 80's, my parents, older sister and I had just arrived to the United States from Cambodia as refugees. A place of prayer for Theravada Buddists was rare back then, so word of Wat Thai spread relatively quickly amongst the Buddist minorities that littered across SoCal. While my parents were inside the temple praying, my siblings and I would scatter around the playground that was near the weekend Thai school adjacent to the temple and mingled amongst uniformed Thai kids who were probably coerced by their parents into attending weekend classes. Kids here would come on Sundays to learn the Thai language as well as the culture.

Faith may be the reason why our family trekked out to the Wat Thai in the first place, but to be completely honest with ourselves it was the food that kept us coming back. No where else in Southern Cal or anywhere outside of Thailand for that matter could you find food that was so authentic, so flavorful and so true to Thai cuisine than what was cooking up at the Wat Thai. Back then, before health codes were fashionable the food stands were located in the basement of the temple. The basement was dimly lit, always filled with smoke, crammed with people--all of whom were combatting with one another to get their food as fast as possible so they could head outside to recapture their breaths and enjoy their meal.

Change booth. Sorry, Connect-4 and checker pieces won't work.

Fast forward to today and there are outdoor booths spread across one side of the temple's parking lot. Before you pay these food stands a visit, you must first change your green bills into plastic coins. This is how the temple keep track of sales and ensure itself to a piece of the profits. Don't worry about "over-changing" your cash as you can always exchange any left over coins for U.S. currency again. Here's a quick run down to the value of each coin: Red = $2, Green = $1, Yellow = 50 cents, and an orange robe = FREE FOOD! (jk!, please do not wear an orange toga just to get free food).

Here's a hint: the longer line has the better papaya salad and yes, it's worth the wait.

There are cooking contests held every year to determine which vendors are able to sell food on the temple grounds. The competition is so fierce with many vendors vying for limited spots that the temple is now alternating vendors every other weekend. You won't see you favorite papaya salad lady on consecutive weekends (if you just happen to visit on consecutive weekends 0=)).

Mmmm, comforting.

There's nothing better on a cold day than a nice bowl of noodles. The richness of the broth is achieved through hours of simmering the beef stock in a huge barrel-sized steel vat. The broth and noodles can be differentiated and accented in a variety of ways from duck to pork to beef (pictured above).

Two sausages and a chicken satay... (sounds like the beginning of a dirty joke)

The chicken, after being marinated and skewered, is grilled to perfection with the exact amount of char and then dipped into a sweet post-marinade (which is what sets this chicken satay from any I've ever had). There's no peanut sauce to detract from the flavor of the chicken. The sausage served here is uncategorizable by any other link. It is not your typical bratwurst or even in the same class as the chinese sausage. There's a slight sourness to these sausage that needs to be appreciated, because it somehow balances the sweet and peppery meat. Dotted throughout the sausage is vinegared-rice (my theory) that defines this brand of frankfurter.

Spicy Papaya Salad.

The signature dish of the temple. Fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, chili, dried shrimp, salty crab, tamarind juice all smashed into shredded young papaya makes for one helluva salad. J and I love our papaya salad spicy! No, not the "El Scorcho" type of spicy that y'all put onto your Gorditas when you guys are feeling a bit adventurous. I mean we like our salad very very spicy. The type of spicy that makes our ears ring like how it would if a bomb were to explode nearby. There have been many occasions where we would shout at each other from across the table just to communicate after being deafened by this salad with beads of sweat dripping from our noses, sniffling back our chili-induced mucous, finding salavation in the cabbage, the sweet rice, the dwindling cup of Thai iced-tea, anything! One day while stumbling around in a half-hallucinated state to search for any sort of restoration for my senses, I discovered the holy grail, the penicillin that would calm the shock that J and I put our bodies through every visit. I don't even know if I should share my discovery of this icy dessert...oops, I've said too much =X. Next time reader(s), next time.

Unclassifiable: Not quite a dish, yet not quite a dessert.

The thrill of discovering something new and delicious is what we try to strive for every visit. Many times we miss, but sometimes we strike gold. In this case, we struck...well, bronze. The deep fried tofu probably lost its appeal after cooling down a bit and was nothing you can't find at you local subpar dim sum house. The glutunous taro cake on the other hand was a find worth savoring.

Experiencing the food at the Wat Thai is a religious experience in itself--a journey sure to be appreciated by all faiths.